Microsoft PC Revenue Up 14%, Surface Booms
Microsoft has reported a 14% year-on-year jump in Q4 revenue for its ‘More Personal Computing’ unit, encompassing Windows, Surface, Xbox and search to notch US$12.9 billion.
Surface revenue jumped by US$374 million to US$1.72 billion, achieving the twelfth straight quarter as a billion dollar division.
The company’s commercial cloud business (includes Azure, Office 365 and others) also exceeded a US$50 billion annualised run rate for the first time this year.
Microsoft reported a slowdown in transactional licensing of its Windows and Office services to small and medium sized organisations amidst the coronavirus pandemic – missing expectations on the key business unit which covers Teams and Office 365.
The company states the slowdown contributed to a 34% drop in revenue for Office products used by businesses.
The news comes after Microsoft announced last month it was permanently closing 86 of its retail locations, as it seeks to focus on its online store.
Shares in Microsoft slipped over 2% to under US$206 per share, despite beating Wall Street forecasts on bottom line results.
For fiscal year 2020, revenue climbed 14% to US$143 billion, whilst earning also climbed 14% to US$5.76 per share.
Profit jumped 13% to US$44.3 billion.
Microsoft’s ‘Productivity and Business Processes’ division notched revenue of US$11.75 billion, missing estimates of US$11.9 billion. The division includes commercial Office products, plus LinkedIn revenue.
LinkedIn recently announced a 6% slash of its workforce following a drop in new recruitment services amidst the coronavirus pandemic.